The invention relates to a cryosurgical instrument for cryosurgical procedures in body lumens.
The conventional surgical technique for removing a foreign object aspirated into a patient""s lungs is by means of the introduction of a flexible bronchoscope with a conduit enabling the insertion of fine forceps for retrieval of the object. However, such a foreign object can be smooth or flat and therefore difficult to grip thereby precluding its removal by forceps and necessitating a more invasive surgical technique.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a cryosurgical instrument comprising a long, resiliently flexible cable terminating at a freezing unit with a selectively operable thermoelectric cooling device for normally freezing a leading contact tip.
By virtue of the design of the cryosurgical instrument of the present invention, cryosurgery is now facilitated in body lumens which hitherto have been inaccessible to conventional direct access cryosurgical instruments having rigid probes, for example, as illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,519 to Shock. The cryosurgical instrument of the present invention affords a wide range of newly envisaged cryosurgical procedures in body lumens of both human and animal subjects accessible via either physiological openings or minimally invasive surgical openings. Such procedures include those hitherto performed by conventional surgical procedures for example, removing a foreign body from a patient""s lung, and also inter alia cryoablation of tumors, removing naturally occurring stones such as gallbladder stones, kidney stones from the urinary tract, obstructing foreign bodies from the bowels, and the like.